Friday, August 29, 2008

So, I got a wild hair and decided I just had to have one! One what you ask? Well it's a hand held device sort of like an mp3 player only for books. You can go to an online bookstore like amazon, fictionwise, my bookstore and more, and many others. There you can purchase digital books. Usually at less cost than a hard copy and no shipping. Through the Gutenberg project you can even download free books. I go through voracious reading spurts where I will read 10 or more books in a month. I'm also one those weirdo's that will read more than one book at a time.

I started buying and downloading books to my computer a little over a year ago. While this was a cost effective alternative for me I found reading whole books on my "puter" cumbersome at best. I like to lay in bed and read and the laptop just doesn't work for that.

Now I am only slightly more computer literate than a rock, contrary to what certain family members think. Customer support is crucial for me. That being said I chose to go with a less costly model in the ebookwiseereader. When I finally got the device to connect to the store site I could download books that I purchased at ebookwise but not any other site or books that I had already downloaded to my computer. Which is the whole reason I wanted an ereader.

Unfortunately, ebookwise appears to have a customer support dept that consists of one person that only works two days a week and can only be reached via email. Oh sure, they ask you for your phone number and best time to call. They say they will respond in 24 hrs. The first issue I contacted them about was not responded to for three days. The emailed response did not address the issue I had. The second issue, that of wanting to know what the return policy was, did not get an answer for four days. Again via email. I would have thought they would want to talk to me, see what the problem was. Try to keep me as a customer.

After 15 hours (and lots of grumbling and grouching) trying to make the device do what it was supposed to do I gave up. I ordered an Amazon Kindle. While the device is cost prohibitive it does all I want it to do and then some. It has an mp3 player on it. You can even connect to the web and read blogs. The best thing about the Kindle is the customer support. A phone number to a live person in the US. Within half an hour of receiving the device I was downloading books to it and reading some of the blogs that I follow.

Amazon will be releasing a new version of Kindle this fall and I probably should have waited for it but, I love my Kindle. It does all that I want it to do and now I can get rid of these stacks of books piled all over my house.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

School starts next Wednesday Sept. third. WOO HOO I can get back to my regularly scheduled life. Not that I don't love my children. At this point in the summer I can tell they are soooo bored they are actually looking forward to school starting, I was finally able to get the shopping done and now there are just a few incidentals left to take care of.

Tomorrow there is a "meet the teachers". We'll be going to that even tho the eight year old has had this years teacher for 2nd grade and the ten year old was in this years teacher's class for 40 min. a day last year. So, we have a good idea what to expect and we know these teachers already.Still, the girls want to go so we will.

The 14 year old even expressed a desire to return to school this year so that is a welcome change although, come Wednesday morning at six am I'm sure he will be singing a different tune.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Bikini clad barista's in Parkland.

Sheesh, ya can't even go to work in a coffee stand without being subjected to perv's these days.This dope shows up wearing women's frillies and "touching" himself. He then proceeds to drive up two more times. On the third trip to the window the girl opens the window and douses him with boiling water. Woo Hoo , I like this chick, except I would've done it on the second trip.

Great, except the perv appeared to enjoy it.

I of course wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini let alone in a bikini serving gourmet coffee. If I had the bod for it....sure I might do that.

Monday, August 18, 2008

I have had this issue before. The last time I tried to buy something at walmart.com . For some reason unknown to me or my bank, verified by visa says my birthdate and phone# do NOT match the card on file.

I have tried to activate on the visa site to no avail. My bank says there shouldn't be any problem and of course walmart does not know anything about verified by visa except that you have to do it in order to make an online purchase,

I do a LOT on online buying. Walmart is the ONLY place I have seen this verified by visa malarkey .

Now it really wouldn't be that much of an issue. If I didn't have a broken leg and could just drive myself to the store to buy my children their school clothes.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Ok, I managed to get out of wearing a cast for four weeks. Instead I have a brace that keeps my knee from bending beyond a certain degree. Husband will be going back to work tomorrow. Thankfully, I have three kids at home for summer break to wait on me hand and foot. We'll see how that goes. I won't be able to drive anywhere for a while so I may be calling on some of you to bring me snacky's and stuff. I'll make it worth your while, I promise. Doc say's I can start getting up and moving around this week so I'm happy about that. Meanwhile, I have a stack of shredding that I'm catching up on. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

This is so funny. I love it. Rather than get all indignant (tho maybe she did, I don't know) she makes her own ad. I know her Mom had some choice words about the McCain ad. But, I didn't hear if Paris herself said anything up until this release.

BTW, her energy policy sounds very similar to the bill the Republicans want an up or down vote on right now.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

So, I have been laying bed feeling sorry for myself and not doing much of anything aside from the basic's. By basics I mean hefting myself out of bed and shuffling 10 or 12 mini steps to position myself on the commode. My dear hubby ran out Thursday morning to get it for me since I had such a hard time getting to the bathroom and then because my right leg is completely immobile and sticking straight out, it would not fit (postage stamp size) in the bathroom. Ahh, it's the little things in life that really matter.

In between trips I have been surfing the net and looking at my blog. I've been looking at small things to enhance my blog. Since I am only a noob at this stuff it can get very confusing. Take for instance I wanted to add an RSS Feed to my blog. That is a news/post update for blogs that I follow. I think. I went to feedburner and registered an account and signed up my blog for feedburner. So now I get an update in my google reader when the blogs I read and subscribe to post an update. I was thinking it would show on my blogspot page. I guess I was wrong about that. Anna? I'm so confused.

Anyway, with all this time on my hands now I will be spending a good portion of it adding to and tweaking my blogs. I hope to work them into sites that my family and friends can visit to get updates on our family and see what silly/controversial/weird/helpful or just trivial entertainment sites I find in my wanderings.